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From Awards & Recognition

Five pharmacy students and their faculty sponsor from Matsuyama University in Japan visited UH Hilo from Feb. 23 to March 8 and were treated to an overview the Daniel K. Inouye College of Pharmacy. UH Hilo has a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Matsuyama, and the program was part of the Hawaiian EDventure program, sponsored by the UH Hilo Conference Center . . .

. . . The students were able to enjoy many aspects of Hawaiian life through the Hawaiian EDventure program, such as tours of Rainbow Falls, King Kamehameha Statue, Naha Stone, Coconut Island and Liliuokalani Park. The tours fit in the concept of the EDventure Program, said the Conference Center’s Sharay Uemura.

“Adding the educational component isour specialty and is what makes us entirely different from the standard tour companies,” Uemura said. “We believe that in order to receive the most benefit from what our island has to offer, the educational component is necessary. Although our programs may visit a lot of the same locations as a regular tour company, the educational component is deeply intertwined. It has not been challenging to incorporate education because our island is so enriched with science and culture that it overflows with education.”

The Hawaiian EDventure Program was awarded the Kahili Award and the “Best of Show” by the Hawaiʻi Visitors and Convention Bureau in 1999 and 2002. The annual “Keep It Hawaiʻi” award acknowledges outstanding programs that perpetuate Hawaiʻi’s culture, history and environment in traditional and inspiring ways for visitors.

Kahili Award

In the past, this tall wooden pole, its top crowned with a cylinder of colored feathers, announced the appearance of Hawaiian royalty. Today, the “Keep It Hawai‘i” carved Kahili award symbolizes excellence in product and deed. It is given to honor the preservation of the Hawaiian spirit, and displayed with great pride.

Judith Fox-Goldstein, Administrative Director of the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo Conference Center and Hawaiian EDventure, became a Certified Festival and Events Executive (CFEE) through IFEA’s (International Festivals and Events Association) professional program.

Judith Fox-Goldstein likes to joke that her job can be viewed as “creative chaos.”

She is the creator and director of the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo Conference Center.

The center opened in 1990 as a university project but is self-supporting, operating on grants and event fees and contracts.

It acts as an events-planning organization, putting on academic and business meetings throughout the state and coordinating special events inside and outside of the UH Hilo community. It also plans festivals and workshops, and handles UH Hilo’s commencement exercises each semester.

“We look at our unit as an extension of the university’s marketing department, as a way to help showcase UH Hilo,” Fox-Goldstein said.

She and a staff of seven, whom she refers to as “eventologists,” help plan everything from site location to accommodations for attendees to food and beverage and technical support for events and workshops. The center also interns UH Hilo students.

“Judith has reinvented all the traditional concepts of what a nonprofit, government or university program can do to be competitive and to survive, especially during difficult economic times,” a colleague said. “She leads by example and has an exhausting — and inspiring — work ethic that sets the standard for everyone who works with her.”